Summer 2022 was Europe's hottest in recorded history 'by a clear margin'

However, summer in Europe — when the continent was beset by extraordinary heatwaves, wildfires, and temperature records in many countries — was the warmest on record by a clear margin, with the previous warmest summer in 2021, Copernicus said.

Autumn was the third warmest on record, only beaten by 2020 and 2006, while winter temperatures in 2022 were about 1C above average, ranking amongst the 10 warmest. Only spring temperatures for Europe were below the average of 1991-2020.

The continent experienced its second warmest June ever recorded at about 1.6C above average and its warmest October recorded with temperatures nearly 2C above average.

Copernicus C3S deputy director Samantha Burgess, said: "2022 was yet another year of climate extremes across Europe and globally. These events highlight that we are already experiencing the devastating consequences of our warming world.

The latest 2022 Climate Highlights from C3S provides clear evidence that avoiding the worst consequences will require society to both urgently reduce carbon emissions and swiftly adapt to the changing climate.” 

Last year marked the eighth year in a row of temperatures more than 1C above the pre-industrial level, the data show.

Globally, last year was the fifth hottest on record, but the margins between fourth and eighth are very tight, Copernicus said.

The hottest years on record globally are 2016, 2020 and 2019 and 2017 respectively, it added.

Wildfires across Europe proved costly not just in monetary terms, but also regarding emissions.

Emissions from June to August were the highest summer total wildfire output estimated for the EU plus Britain in the last 15 years. France, Spain, Germany, and Slovenia experienced their highest summer wildfire emissions for at least the last 20 years, Copernicus said.

“Greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide and methane, are the main drivers of climate change and we can see from our monitoring activities that atmospheric concentrations are continuing to rise with no signs of slowing,” said director of the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service Vincent-Henri Peuch.

Both polar regions saw worrying temperature spikes throughout the year, the data shows.

“March saw the Antarctic experience an intense warm period with temperatures well above average. At Vostok station, in the interior of East Antarctica, for example, the reported temperature reached -17.7C, the warmest ever measured in its 65-year record.

“During September, temperatures over the centre of Greenland were 8C higher than average with C3S data showing that almost all the country experienced average temperatures higher than any in September since at least 1979, associated with southerly prevailing winds that were warmer than normal,” the service said.

During the latter half of February, Antarctic daily sea ice extent — which describes the total area covered by some amount of ice — reached a new record low, bypassing the previous minimum reached in 2017.